Title I, Section 1003(g)

In April 2010, the United States Department of Education (USDE) awarded the New York State Education Department (SED) over $308 million in School Improvement Grant (SIG) funds under Section 1003(g) to support dramatic school change efforts in New York’s Persistently Lowest Achieving (PLA) schools. In May of 2012, USDE approved SED’s Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Flexibility Waiver. This waiver allowed SED to revise the state’s accountability system, replacing schools in improvement, corrective action, restructuring and persistently lowest achieving schools, with Focus Schools and Districts, and Priority Schools.

To be eligible for funding, districts and schools must identify and commit to implement one of four USDE prescribed intervention models in Priority Schools:

Turnaround

Restart

Transformation

School Closure

Districts that can demonstrate the ability to fully and effectively implement one or more of the school intervention models are awarded 1003(g) School Improvement implementation grants for three school years, in an amount of up to $2 million per approved school, per school year.